ABSTRACT
Denmark is sometimes presented as a country where children can move around freely (Hillman, 1999). This is not altogether true. Even though Danish children enjoy a certain degree of independent movement, they are increasingly chauffeured by car. Six to ten year-olds have doubled their car trips and reduced their walking trips by 40 per cent during the last two decades. At the same time eleven to fifteen year-olds have tripled their car trips. (Jensen and Hummer, 2002). The situation in Denmark has come to resemble the situation in other European countries, e.g. the UK (EU 2000; O’Brien et al., 2000). The question remains, though, whether or not this is a problem. The following line of reasoning does not seek to support any normative ideal that children’s independent mobility is inherently good, nor does it hold that escorting or ferrying children is inherently bad. Even so, the confinement of children’s mobility may have consequences for children’s health, safety, equality, development and quality of life (Hillmann et al., 1990; Hillmann, 1993; Thomsen, 2004; Fotel and Thomsen, 2004; Christensen and O’Brien, 2003; Freund and Martin, 1993). While some of these consequences may be intended, such as increasing the safety of the chauffeured child, others are unintended, as is the case when chauffeuring children by car results in increased traffic risks on children that go by bicycle. Other unintended consequences are the increased health risks that follow from the immobilization of children’s bodies.
